Welcome to a shared tripreport of Martijn (CrimsonNL) and myself, on our mission to get on (another) Airbus A300 ride in Europe. For me, it would be the second time, for Martijn a real first and he was very excited about it.

Side note: fellow a.netter DunaA320 (Matt) also made a trip on the A300 shortly after we did, but he managed to get his story online much earlier. Feel free to read his outstanding experience as well: Catching The A300 To The Sun, With MON & EZY(by DunaA320 Oct 19 2011 in Trip Reports)

Planning was a bit difficult, where Martijn was looking to catch up the KU A300 between FCO and CDG. Times were not always good or too pricey. My idea to get on the ‘other’ A300 in Europe, operated by British charter/lowcost operator Monarch was gladly accepted by Martijn and together we worked out an itinerary.

We finally came up with the A300 out of LTN, a real treat with the runway over there, and back to the UK on one of the 3 remaining Boeing 757-200’s in their fleet, also real oldies. Martijn was even more especially hoping to fly the 2 oldest examples they operate: G-MONR, build in 1990 and over 22 years old, as well Boeing 757-200 G-DAJB, close to 25 years age. Let’s see if we would be lucky on this trip!

Booking is very easy on Monarchs website, we reduce the reservation costs slightly to pay with Paypal here, prebook a meal on the A300 flight and took seat selection against an additional small fee. The weeks after I made our booking, Monarch was sending emails to my account regularly and trying to sell ‘everything else’ they had on offer.

We flew in the weekend of 24/25 September, with easyJet as our airline to reach LTN that day. We met at the meeting point at AMS, and continued our way to the H-gates in AMS. I’ll post some pictures from AMS departure lounge 3 after some renewals done.

New design for departure lounge 3

A newly opened Starbucks in departure lounge 3

The flight to LTN was delayed by an hour due to weather at the origin airport. LTN was having low visibility caused by morning fog and calm winds, definitely not the best situation to start a day but not uncommon in the beginning of autumn in Europe.

We boarded the expected A319 via the rear stairs and took 24F and 25F, and where the aircraft filled up quickly (nearly no empty seats), Martijn got lucky and the middle seat in his row remained empty. For all info, both last rows were fully occupied We estimated the load on this flight being about 95%, not bad at all!

Boarding easyJet’s G-EZBE

We decide to use the rear entrance

Doors closed, the captain made a welcome speech and informed about our cabin manager Katie and her exciting team on board. He requested attention for their safety demonstration, which was given during taxiing.
Interesting to note, that the runway use in AMS was a bit rare. Takeoff was performed from runway 18C, a first for me personally.

After airborne we turned right and almost followed out the ‘Runway 24 departure’. The clear skies above the Netherlands coast area gave good possibilities to see the ground surface.

Deplane by stairs in LTN, and a nice walk into the terminal building. Immigration took about 5 minutes, a lot of desks are open to handle all passengers.

An under the wing picture, for Markus

We bought ourselves some sandwiches at some shop (M&S I believe it was), and walked outside to watch the traffic at the airport. The majority being easyJet, but also Wizzair, Ryanair, ThomsonFly and Monarch were seen. More interesting was a plain white Romanian registered (Medallion Air?) MD-83 taking off and a wide variety of bizz jets from all over the world.

A lot of orange and pink at this airport. Wizzair is also around. As well some birds

Smoky MD-83 taking off to ? (Romanian registered)

It’s Monarch indeed, but too small for our taste

Later on, as expected with 20 minutes delay inbound from AGP, the very much welcomed Airbus A300. It landed right in front of us on runway 26. Martijn got really excited when he noticed registration G-MONR was operating, and also on our flight not much later.

Another Monarch, and this is what we like! Our A300 arriving from AGP

A few pictures where made and we hurried into the terminal building, upstairs to the security checkpoint which was without any hassle. We were greeted in the modern shopping area, also featuring a Starbucks branch, and LTN does really good by offering this kind of terminal to it’s mostly ‘lowcost’ passengers.

Luton shopping

’Our’ A300 parked in the distance

Boarding was on the screens from gate 22, a walk not too far. Quite a few passengers queuing up already, mostly elderly travellers, or parents with infants. It’s low season after all, children at older age had to attend school again. The whole process was very organized and calm, in an orderly British way.
We had to walk outside and were allowed to board at either the forward or rear steps. No question which way we went, and we had some good photo opportunities, real great!

Beautiful A300 nose section

G-MONR indeed, their oldest example

Double checked: indeed A300 is what we need!

And one more look forward before boarding

Boarding of the regular passengers finished ontime, but a cabin door (R2) remained open with cabin crew waiting for 6 wheelchair passengers, loaded by a passenger highlifter truck or whatever you call such machines. Not the best performance here by that company taking care for the disabled or elderly amongst us. Also the captain announced that the Luton Handling company cannot cope with these large aircrafts. Shame on you LTN and 25 minutes delay in the end. Let’s go and fly!

We got our pushback followed by a slow taxi to the very beginning of runway 26. Meanwhile a safety demo was done, the estimated flight time of 1h55m was announced as well and the cabin checked carefully.

We did some backtracking on runway 26 to get the max out of it, before starting our powerful takeoff roll, which was followed by a steep takeoff climb. Martijn tried to tape it on video for you but his batteries failed. Bad luck.

180° turn on the runway after backtracking before takeoff

Airborne!

Climbing out to higher levels

…and above the clouds again

We levelled off at 33000 feet at some moment. From that moment I got some questions from my seatmate –an older female from Ireland and on her way to a walking holiday on Mallorca-, wondering about my picturing etc. Well, this resulted in a nice conversation which took the complete duration of the flight. We shared experiences of travelling and about Mallorca, where I’ve been numerous times before.

Meanwhile, I did some more photos for you, including the pre-ordered vegetarian meal option (GBP 7.99), offering me a tasty cheddar-tomato toastini, fresh green feta salad, a nice Chocolate Caramel Mousse and a complimentary Kenco hot drink. Not bad at all for this price, and it was a very nice meal deal!

Legroom on Monarch’s A300 aircraft. Not so bad at all, to be honest.

Trying to fix something? Or did you break it?

OK, just leave it this way…

Cabin View

Contents of my seat pocket

My pre-ordered meal! Really good and value for money.

Cruising in French airspace

To give a better idea about legroom, he a better view

The meal kept me busy for some time, aside from some moderate bumps over France, which is always entertaining with a meal and a drink on your traytable.
Then a fellow passenger from the middle rows got up and took a Topgear magazine from one of the overhead bins above row 44, which accidentally dropped on the traytable of seat 44B, where a cup of red wine was standing. As a result, the whole trouser of the man in 44B was coloured red, definitely not nice when you’re travelling and it’s basically not possible to clean again during a flight.
It was nice to see the attentive crewmember pro-actively approaching the man and offering assistance to clean up.

The island of Mallorca insight

It’s beautiful down there!

Dedicated to Philip: NCL’s Norwegian Epic and German cruising company Aida

Not much later the island of Mallorca came insight and it was clear that we would land from the South, hence our descend along the beautiful westcoast of the island. Beautiful bays, small cities along the coast and a mountain scenery. No wonder why so many people love this place! The weather was not too great, with clouds here and there, and the occasional rainshowers around. After some good views on Palma harbour, with some cruiseships in, we landed on the left runway in PMI and vacated the runway quickly. Quite some other traffic around here, mainly from the UK on this side of the terminal (non-Schengen).

When we had to disembark (Martijn was already gone), I just tried my luck to see the flightdeck and it was granted immediately. I had to seat on the captains seat, got myself pictured and a few minutes chatting with the FO, a young guy on this old frame.

I like the seat covers actually, nice colour setting on this aircraft

The A300 flightdeck

One final view on the A300 in PMI.

All together, a fantastic experience on this A300 and Monarch… do we get similar, worse or even better treatment on the next flight? Let’s see!

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PMI transit

At PMI we had a few beers and watched the crowded terminal full of returning holiday makers. Mainly back to the UK that night, with numerous flights by all the British airlines we know. Our flight was checked in at 2 desks, with immense queues of people waiting to be served. Did you know what a pleasure it can be to have checked in online? We grabbed another beer and watched them for a while. And, when the line was gone, we got our boarding passes replaced by some real ones at the desks.
For this flight we would split up again, me in the front cabin with a pre-ordered ‘extra legroom seat’ and Martijn was in the back somewhere between the crowd
We went upstairs and through the security checkpoint. A 0,75 bottle of Vittel water was no big deal here and just went through (shame on you guys…), it was my kind of test of the Spanish security guys. I told Martijn in advance, that they wouldn’t notice. And indeed, I was right. What a joke! Well, that’s Spain for you.

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Our gate was announced on the screens, A22, somewhere in a dark corner. No views on the apron in this area, and a with a good load of fellow passengers around, not much seats to sit down for a while.

Gate 22 – a boring place

Well, never mind. Boarding was announced on time and we would hope for the Boeing 757-200 on this leg, which was confirmed when we glimpsed through a tiny window in the aviobridge. And Martijn got even happier when he noticed the letters ‘JB’ on the nosewheel door. That means we indeed got on the oldest Monarch 757 still around, a great catch indeed!

We were boarding and really friendly welcomed by a jolly young male crewmember. I joked a bit about our different seats and he replied that Martijn could maybe switch to the front later on. Well, that was not his initial plan but a friendly offer anyway.
I was assigned for row 04F, and the other 2 seats remained empty. Really nice.
Meanwhile I texted Martijn that he could join, and also the crew did active upgrade sales onboard, so several passengers went forward already. Finally also Martijn decided to come to my row, but only in exchange for my window seat which I was willing to please him with. The payment was something to sort out later on, and the crew said that they would do that during their inflight sale service.

’Extra Legroom’ seats on Monarch

We left on schedule from PMI and taxied to runway 24R for takeoff this time. The RollsRoyce engines spooled up and we enjoyed a powerful takeoff in rain here, bound for the UK again.

Before the crew commenced service an announcement was made that no items containing nuts were sold onboard, and the crew requested all of us not to open food containing nuts, all due to one passenger onboard with a severe nut allergy. I think this is a very nice touch from the crew to make this clear to everyone, just for the safety of 1 passenger.

Senior cabin crew Carol, as well her collegue Jessica served our row, and we decided to take the usual Baileys and some crisps. They sell it for a ‘combo price’ so all good. Also the seat was paid for, I think Martijn paid GBP 5 extra for his seat, definitely cheaper then at the desk. They crew was super friendly, and talkative, real nice!

Enjoying our time on board

The cruise was very calm and according the flightcrew at 38000 feet. They estimated an ontime arrival in LGW as well. With our good legroom the flight was surely an enjoyable one!

Also a quick stop at the lavatory was becoming a positive experience once again, when the crew started a conversation with me. Carol bought a watch for her partners birthday, and she asked my opinion etc. This all continued in some talking about the airline, our A300 trip that afternoon. They were really open-minded and fair to me, and they told me that the cabin crew dislike the A300 since there are not enough galleys but they would leave the fleet soon (at some moment, not decided yet).
Well, with such talking and a flight not taking forever, our descend was noticeable and I went back to my seat. The cabin was quickly prepared for landing, which was done in drizzle conditions with slightly reduced visibility in LGW. Runway 26L was ours and for the second time that day we arrived in the UK.

We taxied for a few minutes and finally arrived at gate 17, our parking position. Since our seat was in the forward section we got off really quick, and the crew wished us farewell.

A bit of longer walk to immigration in LGW, but it was deserted at this time of the day. Both of us were let in within minutes and we headed onwards to the hotel shuttle bus.

We decided to stay in the Travellodge Gatwick Airport Hotel, on the Southside of the airport. A (paid) hotel shuttlebus drives during the day and we would be taking the final service, and when missed, we would have to take a cab.
At some point we found the shuttlebus already standing at some busstop and we quickly entered it. We thought that it was a close call, but were al set. After about 15 minutes we arrived in front of the hotel.

We were assited during check-in by a younger guy, Pakistan origin probably, not showing much interest. We enquired if the bar was open but with no result. It was closed. Also no shops or bars in the area, so definitely no way to have a final drink before sleeping. So we went to our rooms and would meet again the next morning.
Well, the Travellodge Gatwick is among the most mediocre hotels I’ve been to, a lot of overdue maintenance in the rooms and just ‘dirty’. The dusty carpet, stains (blood and other stuff) on the walls, unpleasant lighting. No amenities at all, also not in the bathroom (which was clean though). But what else can you ask for at an airport hotel for just 25 pounds?! I guess it was ‘value for money’ for UK standards. But these hotels are definitely not my standards, usually. It was ok though for the night, no further complaints. Just be prepared.

My room in the Travellodge property

I slept rather good, and that’s most important, waking up again at some unhuman hour on Sunday, I think the alarm went off at 0530am, since we had to catch a shuttlebus and flight around 8am back to AMS.

No breakfast at this place, so I met Martijn in the lobby and we jumped on the shuttlebus to the terminal. Martijn checked in for his BA flight to AMS, and I was checked in for another leg on easyJet, me hoping for an easyJet A320 (I only flew their 319’s and 737’s so far).
We buy a sandwich and coffee from Costa Coffee company, and have a seat overlooking the apron.
At some point Martijn had to leave to gate 53 from where his flight was leaving, slightly before mine. He was flying back on G-DOCU, a Boeing 737-400.

I had a few minutes time left and got some Earl Grey teabags at the taxfree store, and then I also made my way to the gate, 112, for my easyJet flight to AMS.

The bridge in LGW is always fascinating to use!

While walking through the bridge I saw Martijn’s BA flight having pushback.

G-DOCU with Martijn onboard leaving for AMS

A few minutes later, I also noticed the G-DAJB, the 757 that we flew just the night before, being towed. Of course I sneaked a quick picture before boarding my own flight. Such a shame, another Airbus A319. But, at least a new registration for me. Definitely not the newest one in the easyJet fleet. Anway, I don’t care. It will be 40 minutes only.

26 rows in total on these A319s, last row no window. So row 25 is where I go. Finally 3 for me, I thought, but it’s close to full house. In the end a cabin crew Andrew member gets 2 passengers in my row because they want to sit together. Bad luck for me, cramped seating in the end and definitely worse then on the Monarch A300

The purser on my flight, Dave, makes a welcome where Joyce and Andrew do the safety demo. Still manually on easyJet.

We block out several minutes ahead of schedule, but a long waiting time at departure runway 26L takes quite a bit of the remaining schedule.

Once we took off in the calm and clear morning skies, we made some righthand turns towards to Northsea coast. It was surely a very calm flight. Then the only thing I hoped for was a bigger seat, so what else to do then try to sleep a bit more? And that’s what I did, sometimes a quick look outside to follow our progress.

Airborne from LGW. Great weather for flying!

London in a distance. Do you see LCY – City Airport ?

Interesting to notice is that the crew takes a lot of time for their food/beverage sales service, and one passenger just bought a coffee. Just a minute later or so the seatbelt sign was switched on and the announcement about ‘put your traytables up’ etc was mentioned to us. The passenger called the crew and handed back the coffee and wanted his money back. Which was done so.
I never noticed that before to be honest, but I can understand the passengers viewpoint in this case. The crew handled the situation well, I think.

Approaching AMS. A typical scene with sun reflecting on our waters. I like it.

Our landing was on runway 18R, what else?!, followed by 10 minutes taxiing to parking spot H1, at the lowcost terminal in AMS. We arrived exactly on schedule, so good performance on this flight as well.

Disembarking via the rear steps was possible in AMS, and I was off in a minute, on my way home. 4 flights completed, the Monarch mission was successfully done and very interesting.

To conclude this trip on Monarch, the main airline on this trip; we enjoyed every minute with them. The seats are comfortable enough, also in standard Y on the A300. Not the greatest seatpitch, but not too bad either. Interior looked well kept in general, and the crews on Monarch are outstanding. I said to Martijn that it has been a while since I got onboard with such attentive friendly crews. So kudos to them!
Our mission for the A300 succeeded, for me the second time on this type but it remains a special breed in the European skies. The B757-200 flight was definitely a nice catch too, especially with only 3 remaining with this airline and maybe on their way out too.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tripreport and I hope to bring you soon some more stories from my 2011 travels.

Thank you for writing this TR . It sure was a very nice thing to read on December 24th . I have flown the A300 many times with LH from LIS to FRA . But I have logged the 757 only once with Condor on my way to Mallorca .

Great report, thanks for sharing. I miss the A300 on the LH routes, flew them to Berlin, Athens, Barcelona, Larnaca... Was a common sight back then.
The meal looks like being very good value for money.

In the rear cabin shot of the A300, there is something aft of the 4R jumpseat/exit, can you (or anyone else) tell me what that thing is? Its a big white pointy thing, surrounded by black, and covering what could have been the last window on the airplane, therefore only leaving a single window past the last exit door. I'm assuming its some sort of emergency equipment since there there appears to be a placard with red lettering on it...

Really nice photos and great to see your flight in the A300. You don't get to see this type of aircraft too much anymore, so it was nice to see you had a good flight on one. I flew on an A300 between FRA and TXL back in Aug 2003, and it was a nice flight - the plane definitely feels very WIDE inside, more so to me than any other airplane I've been on.

Nice report Eric and Martijn - great that you managed to get your two request regs, and four different routes.

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter): Boarding of the regular passengers finished ontime, but a cabin door (R2) remained open with cabin crew waiting for 6 wheelchair passengers, loaded by a passenger highlifter truck or whatever you call such machines. Not the best performance here by that company taking care for the disabled or elderly amongst us. Also the captain announced that the Luton Handling company cannot cope with these large aircrafts. Shame on you LTN and 25 minutes delay in the end. Let’s go and fly!

Last winter we sat on our onarch A320 for over an hour before we could be deiced - clearly ZB handling in LTN isn't what it should be

A great TR. Really lucky of you to catch the A300 as long as they last in European skies.

Nice to see you went down to PMI, and really lucky of you to have a landing from the South which allows great views of the city of Palma and its beautiful bay; I have always landed from the North which is OK, but not as spectacular as the one you had.

What a wonderful crew you encountered on your flight, that is for sure a nice touch and turn a regular flight into an exceptional one, kudos on them... I just assume they are happy to talk to passengers who take some interest on their job, which must not be ab easy wish to accomplish on these flights full of tourists eager to have sun and beer on their holidays.

Hey airbuseric and CrimsonNL! Fantastic TR, loved it! I think Monarch is a great airline, been on them a few times (All 757 flights). Glad to see you made it on G-DAJB, I was on this aircraft a couple years ago and sat in 5A. Just love seeing the old ZB birds here, they sound and looks brilliant.

Great trip report here, all of your flights look like positive experiences. It was a very good idea to catch the MON A300, and to combine it with one of their 757-200s. These types probably won't be in the MON fleet for too much longer. It also reminds me of the fact that leisure airlines used to have some very interesting types, just a few years ago I remember out of MAN we had Air Atlanta Europe 747-200/300s, MyTravel DC10s, Air Scandic A300s and L-1011s, Balkan Holidays Tu-154s e.t.c.

Well, it's not always this way when an EZY, FR or a W6 flight is boarding, because of the free-seating situation.

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter):Well, the Travellodge Gatwick is among the most mediocre hotels I’ve been to, a lot of overdue maintenance in the rooms and just ‘dirty’.

Have you complained to Travelodge? The quality at that chain is quite variable. I know the room was very cheap, but they have provided me with a voucher in the past even when I've paid £19 for a night.

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter):. A 0,75 bottle of Vittel water was no big deal here and just went through (shame on you guys…), it was my kind of test of the Spanish security guys. I told Martijn in advance, that they wouldn’t notice. And indeed, I was right. What a joke! Well, that’s Spain for you.

I know, its stupid. When we stay in BCN we can always get through whatever we like, I always just thought that it was because we were crew?

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter):They were really open-minded and fair to me, and they told me that the cabin crew dislike the A300 since there are not enough galleys but they would leave the fleet soon (at some moment, not decided yet).

I've had the same thing said to me when I've spoken to MON crews before.

This summer just gone the A320 did the morning 8871/72 and one or two of the afternoon departures out of AMS 8875 and 8882.

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter):The purser on my flight, Dave, makes a welcome where Joyce and Andrew do the safety demo. Still manually on easyJet.

I remember looking up your crew for your flight. Dave is brilliant one of my favourite people to fly with. Shame it was such a short flight.

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter):Interesting to notice is that the crew takes a lot of time for their food/beverage sales service, and one passenger just bought a coffee. Just a minute later or so the seatbelt sign was switched on and the announcement about ‘put your traytables up’ etc was mentioned to us. The passenger called the crew and handed back the coffee and wanted his money back. Which was done so.
I never noticed that before to be honest, but I can understand the passengers viewpoint in this case. The crew handled the situation well, I think.

Personally I've never had this happen on the many AMS flights I've done, even a few days ago with an airborne time of just 34 minutes! You really just have to get out ASAP. A few weeks ago we even had time for breakfast!

Thanks for sharing Eric and a nice read. Nice to hear your comments on the MON crew. The ones on my flight werent as friendly as yours and were not seen hardly at all throughout the flight. The ones I did speak to were nice enough though.

Quoting jetMARC (Reply 3):In the rear cabin shot of the A300, there is something aft of the 4R jumpseat/exit, can you (or anyone else) tell me what that thing is? Its a big white pointy thing, surrounded by black, and covering what could have been the last window on the airplane, therefore only leaving a single window past the last exit door

Its a crew jump seat that folds into the side wall. Behind it are 2 lavs on each side of the aircraft. Hope that answers your question.

Good to see you playing the catch up game with your little Monarch trippy. The A300 is certainly a nice plane and rather rare nowadays. In recent times I've only flown one LH example TXL-MUC back before 2005 (was actually booked to fly one FRA-BCN in 2009 but they retired the type a few months before that flight so I ended up on a boring A321) but a couple of AY/KR examples as kid on various charters to the Mediterranean.

Also good to catch a pocket rocket or a 757.

Those pictures of the lush green, early autumn fields of the UK look a bit weird during these gray days .

Sounds like you got lucky with terrific crews on the Monarch sectors, always the way to make or break a flight.

See, even your home airport has a few surprises left up its sleeve for you!

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter): We were greeted in the modern shopping area, also featuring a Starbucks branch, and LTN does really good by offering this kind of terminal to it’s mostly ‘lowcost’ passengers.

Hmm, not sure what you mean here? I don't particularly like LTN, for the same reason as most of the UK airports - too much shopping and gates are only announced at last moment with the inevitable race to the gate to be in a prime boarding position. Plus the gate waiting areas are very dire.

STN et al. have quite similar shopping areas, lots of different outlets and brands available. Actually I can't think of any UK (or Ireland now that the portacabin piers at DUB are gone) low cost terminals/airports that wouldn't have plenty of shopping concessions available, and in a nation so obsessed with consumption as the UK that's only to be expected!

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter): Meanwhile, I did some more photos for you, including the pre-ordered vegetarian meal option (GBP 7.99), offering me a tasty cheddar-tomato toastini, fresh green feta salad, a nice Chocolate Caramel Mousse and a complimentary Kenco hot drink. Not bad at all for this price, and it was a very nice meal deal!

Oh yes, those seats remind me of my Monarch flight AGP-MAN two years ago. That A321 was rather old and worn down with the seats falling apart, your A300 looks to be in a much better condition! That flight was a completely forgettable experience, nothing special but nothing outright bad either...

San Miguel, nice. You definitely weren't in the German sector with their "Warsteiner Beer Lounge" then .

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter): I think Martijn paid GBP 5 extra for his seat, definitely cheaper then at the desk.

Wow, that is cheap! So how big was the legroom difference?

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter): Also no shops or bars in the area, so definitely no way to have a final drink before sleeping.

There's a nice pub/restaurant/manor type of thing called "The Gatwick Manor" maybe three quarter miles down the road, not very obvious if you didn't do your research beforehand, though.

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter):Well, the Travellodge Gatwick is among the most mediocre hotels I’ve been to, a lot of overdue maintenance in the rooms and just ‘dirty’. The dusty carpet, stains (blood and other stuff) on the walls, unpleasant lighting. No amenities at all, also not in the bathroom (which was clean though). But what else can you ask for at an airport hotel for just 25 pounds?! I guess it was ‘value for money’ for UK standards. But these hotels are definitely not my standards, usually. It was ok though for the night, no further complaints. Just be prepared.

Well, that's exactly what you get with Travelodges. They are fine if you score a good price, but rarely worth paying more than around 40 EUR for the night. No frills is the key here.

As for the Gatwick one, yeah, it is a bit rundown compared to some of the newer properties they have, but an okay for a one night stay between flights. I stayed there back in May for exactly this purpose (+ a little meet with The Duna et al) and scored a 9 GBP room during one of their frequent sales - I think that was a steal.

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter): We left on schedule from PMI and taxied to runway 24R for takeoff this time. The RollsRoyce engines spooled up and we enjoyed a powerful takeoff in rain here, bound for the UK again.

Ahh, the good old 757 take off. Had an amazingly powerful one ex-RVN three days ago, we just shot to the air. Loved it!

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 9): Yes, very nice indeed to offer Starbucks coffee onboard. Advertising alliances seem to have become quite common among the airlines these days.

Well give me Juan Valdez any day.

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 9): That looks very substantial for the money. On SAS the same money would've bought a muffin, 1/2 cup of bland coffee and a glass of water.

That's bullshit and you know it. SAS does not sell water by the glass, but by a half liter bottle. And if you get half a cup of coffee it's your own fault for asking only for a half filled one. For 9 EUR you get a sandwich + drink combo with SAS just fine. Heck, even a mini bottle of Champers is only around 10 EUR.

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 9): That's quite shameless of them to charge for that, at least when in mid-flight.

Ok, so basically after take off it is perfectly fine to walk up to the J and F cabins if there are vacant seats there, that's what you are saying? I'm a bit confused here, you were offended by economy class passengers using YOUR toilet in business class on your LHI flights and now you think that this kind of behavior should be tolerated and not charged for?

I've been waiting on this one to pop up anytime soon. Great story and of course your excellent pics and Martijns video's contribute as well. How lucky were you both to have both the frames you wanted! An excellent 2 days of flying, but I wonder if there was no more flight home after coming back from PMI at LGW? Kudos to the Monarch crews (it looks as if all crews on A300's are very good ) and that cockpit looks very not-Airbus with the yoke between the legs.

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter):Monarch was sending emails to my account regularly and trying to sell ‘everything else’ they had on offer.

Oh how I hate that. From the moment you have to give any website your emailaddress, the spamming starts!

I like the colors as well, were they the same on the B757 in the 'normal' eco class?

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter):We went upstairs and through the security checkpoint. A 0,75 bottle of Vittel water was no big deal here and just went through (shame on you guys…), it was my kind of test of the Spanish security guys. I told Martijn in advance, that they wouldn’t notice. And indeed, I was right. What a joke! Well, that’s Spain for you.

Well, it was good for you but indeed a blamage for the security staff at PMI. Makes you wonder what else they miss...

Quoting airbuseric (Thread starter): I think this is a very nice touch from the crew to make this clear to everyone, just for the safety of 1 passenger.

Nice indeed but maybe difficult to 'control'. Just one passenger has to open a package 'bring-your-own'...

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Reply 20):That's bullshit and you know it. SAS does not sell water by the glass, but by a half liter bottle. And if you get half a cup of coffee it's your own fault for asking only for a half filled one. For 9 EUR you get a sandwich + drink combo with SAS just fine. Heck, even a mini bottle of Champers is only around 10 EUR.

My fault? Tell it to the flight attendants who always insist on only filling up the cup to the half. Yeesh, it would make sense during turbelence, but in calm skies they better give me the coffee I payed for. Of course, the curse of Jantelagen prohibits me from pointing it out to them. I'm a swede after all

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Reply 20):Ok, so basically after take off it is perfectly fine to walk up to the J and F cabins if there are vacant seats there, that's what you are saying? I'm a bit confused here, you were offended by economy class passengers using YOUR toilet in business class on your LHI flights and now you think that this kind of behavior should be tolerated and not charged for?

No that's not what I'm saying. Walking up to C&F mid flight is a major crime! However, just moving to the front seats in the same class with just marginally better legroom, is all fine. As long as those seats are vacant. I don't see a point for charging extra for a few inches of legroom in the same class, exit rows I can understand. Oh well €5 may not have been any large sums anyways.